NYPD officer pleads guilty in Pelham shooting

Former NYPD officer Brendan Cronin of Yonkers pleads guilty to attempted murder of two men at Westchester County Courthouse in White Plains. (Video by Ricky Flores/The Journal News)

Brendan Cronin of Yonkers shot at two men last year

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Former NYPD officer Brendan Cronin, right, was sentenced to nine years in prison at the Westchester County Courthouse on Sept. 22, 2015. At left is his lawyer, Pierre Sussman. Cronin had opened fire on a car in Pelham after drinking and seriously injured one of the men inside.(Photo: Ricky Flores/The Journal News)Buy Photo

Judge Barry Warhit accepted the plea deal, which calls for Cronin to serve nine years in prison on the two felony counts of attempted murder and two felony counts of first degree assault, as well as one year concurrently on a misdemeanor DWI count.

Neither Cronin nor his lawyers commented after the court appearance Tuesday. NYPD Lt. John Grimpel said Tuesday afternoon that Cronin remained suspended from the police force.

Cronin, 28, was arrested after opening fire without provocation on Robert Borrelli and Joseph Felice, two New Rochelle men who were driving home from a recreational hockey game in Mount Vernon on April 29, 2014.

Cronin, a police veteran of six years who worked in the 46th Precinct in the Bronx, had been training at an NYPD shooting range before consuming 10 drinks, including beer and liquor, at a bar on City Island, he told Pelham police after his arrest. Driving back to Westchester before midnight, Cronin got off the Hutchinson River Parkway and stopped on Lincoln Avenue in Pelham.

Borrelli and Felice were stopped at the traffic light at Sixth Avenue when Cronin walked up to their vehicle and unloaded at least 14 bullets from his Glock service weapon. Felice was hit six times and still has a bullet lodged in his chest.

Borrelli, who was not struck, rushed his friend to the hospital. Cronin was arrested a few blocks away in New Rochelle after a Pelham officer pulled him over.

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Shooting victims of drunk former NYPD police officer Brendan Cronin speak out after his sentencing at the Westchester County Courthouse in White Plains. (Video by Ricky Flores/The Journal News)

Cronin has expressed no remorse, Borrelli and Felice said outside the courthouse Tuesday. Borrelli said he was standing a couple of spots behind Cronin in line to pay for parking Tuesday morning before Cronin's court appearance, and that Cronin did not acknowledge him.

"I don't believe he's sorry," Borrelli said.

Felice said he was disappointed with the sentence, which the two men hoped would be at least 12 1/2 years.

"It's been a grueling 16 months since that night of horror," he said.

Felice told The Journal News in an interview Monday that his "pretty much perfect life" has been ruined by the shooting. He said due to his injuries he now relies on his wife to drive him to his job as a salesman, which forced her to quit her own job. He has not been able to golf or play hockey and is unable to lift his 5-year-old son. Borrelli said he is still haunted by the thought he could have prevented the incident somehow.

Borrelli and Felice's attorney, Randolph McLaughlin of Newman Ferrara, called Cronin's crime "heinous" and said their focus will turnto their civil litigation against Cronin, New York City, the NYPD, several police personnel, and Alehouse, the City Island bar where Cronin and other officers allegedly drank before the shooting.

The charges against Cronin, brought in July 2014, carry a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison.

Cronin remains free on $150,000 bail. Prosecutors said he would surrender in a week to begin serving his expected sentence.

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The scene after an off-duty New York City police officer allegedly shot a man in a car in Pelham April 30, 2014. The officer - apparently unprovoked - reportedly fired into a car with 2 occupants.
Irwin Gary Marks.